By: Christopher Feery | February 13, 2018

Outback has come under fire for what many believe is a sinister plot. Conspiracy theories are not a new phenomenon, but they’ve taken on a new relevance in today’s day and age. The political divide that consumes the nation has led folks on both sides of the debate to embrace theories that are at least somewhat eyebrow raising.

Nonetheless, it apparently helps those folks deal with the current state of affairs. If you can’t accept things the way they are, why not cling to a fringe theory that offers up a reality that makes more sense to you?

While political conspiracy theories go with the territory, it sometimes takes a conspiracy theory on another topic to bring the absurdity of things into perspective. As Yahoo shares, a social media user with far too much time on their hands has done us a solid in that regard.

The user sees something amiss with Outback Steakhouse, specifically in the way the company has chosen locations for franchises.

“A recent deep dive by Twitter user @eatmyaesthetics into the restaurant chain’s locations had the internet raising some eyebrows. The user’s tweet has been retweeted more than 100,000 times and has started an intense investigation into the real intentions of the popular steakhouse,” Yahoo reports.

“The layout of Outback’s locations in several cities bear an eerie resemblance to a pentagram, a symbol used within Wiccan practice and in ancient cultures, but is also often associated with the practice of Satanism in the U.S.”

“Wtf is Outback Steakhouse planning,” the user wrote.

That picture was complemented with a picture of a map of Outback locations, and the user was kind enough to point out that the distance between locations could be conveniently represented with a pentagram.

Other users - that also apparently have way too much time on their hands - would chime in to concur that this was clearly a sign that something awful was going on. Outback would eventually chime in to soothe user concerns.

“Eventually it started to get a little out of hand and the restaurant itself had to step in to set the record straight,” Yahoo added. “Maybe it all just comes back to the Bloomin’ Onion, one of Outback’s trademarks foods.”

“If the Bloomin' Onion is evil then we don't want to be nice,” Outback wrote.

It’s absolutely astounding that this theory gained enough traction that Outback would have to respond, but such is life in today’s day and age of social media. To recap, a user that has way too much time on their hands saw something that they wanted to see in a picture.

The user interpreted that as a sign of a vast conspiracy. Other users fed into it - hook, line and sinker.

That’s about how it works with other conspiracy theories as well, and that provides us all with a valuable takeaway. Before giving credence to any of these theories, it’s always wise to consider the source.

That’s especially true for particularly bizarre theories, as they often stem from folks that could use some more hobbies.